Each morning at work, our staff gets together and a different person brings an inspirational thought for the day.

It’s a way of encouraging one another and intentionally starting the day out as a team.

Of late, many of these have been about spring and the anticipation about warmer days, new life beginning in gardens and the birds returning.

Spring is my favourite season also.

The days get longer every day and there is a certainty in knowing there will be plenty of hot days ahead before the cold weather returns.

I grew up in Northern Alberta where spring happens in the span of two weeks in late April and early May. It was a fun time when water ran everywhere. My younger brother and I would get soaked everyday, exploring the creeks and ditches imagining we were Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. Each spring, I become a kid again and put on my rubber boots to go help the water run to the ditches and through the culverts.

Mostly, it takes me back to simpler days as a child when playing was a big part of my days.

I did not have many worries back then, other than I never did my homework and sweated each day at school that the teacher would ask.

The best day of every year was the last day of school when all my unfinished assignments had been forgiven and I had a clean slate.

Those younger years certainly affect our personal growth.

Sometimes on Sunday nights, I feel anxiety for no reasons whatsoever. I have now figured out during my school years many Sunday evenings I started worrying about the unfinished homework and get sick to my stomach.

Interestingly enough, that never created enough motivation to get it done but rather a sense of doom that on Monday I’d be in trouble. My parents did not monitor whether the homework got done and, unless it was for big marks, I never did any.

That makes me think about many of our homeless people and their upbringing.

What anxieties continue decades later that perhaps they do not even understand why?

Adults abused as children often have immense fears that seem inappropriate to the current situation.

These fears often reflect times as a child when abuse happened.

Lack of food, clothing and other basic needs can create a survival mentality that often creates problems of overeating and hoarding.

Some of us work through some of our childhood baggage while others struggle to separate current realities from childhood trauma. This often blocks them from developing adult coping mechanisms necessary to maintain employment, relationships and often personal health. Because of this, too many people end up living on the street because they’re unable to properly deal with roadblocks in their life.

We all have our doubts and fears which we navigate through. We also know others less able to step beyond their fears or, worse yet, are guided by their fears.

Now think of people that were regularly sexually and physically abused as children. Their anxieties and fears must be affecting them at each step of each day.

— Floyd Perras is executive director of Siloam Mission.

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